Monday, July 26, 2010

Aftermath is a very powerful word, but I'll let it stand. It's been over a week since I busted the WSOP Main Event. I am very pleased with my performance throughout the whole summer. I still wish I was a part of the November Nine though. Now I'm back in Florida relaxing. I've just been working out and hanging out. I haven't really touched poker, although I'm always thinking about it... even in my sleep.

I had a dream I was still in the Main Event last night. There were still 60-70 players remaining. I had a nice stack and I could feel I was on the verge of closing in on the final table. I woke up and I was thinking to myself "Okay Tristan... You're heading into Day 7 of the ME. Let's take a shower and get ready to play some poker today." I thought about it for another second while I laid in bed... I must be crazy. They already had the November 9! I had to convince myself I was already eliminated from the tournament. I haven't been dwelling on busting from the main event but maybe my subconscious has.

Life back in Florida isn't so bad. I've seen rain a few times in the past week. I enjoy it when it rains sometimes. Some people hate when it rains too much, but being in Vegas for two months with no rain, I'm glad I got to see some again. I caught up on Season 7 of Entourage. It is the only TV series I have actually followed. The other shows like 24, Lost, etc. I never got into because I didn't want to have to wait to watch the end. A couple summers ago I watched the first 3-4 seasons of Entourage and was hooked.

I'll get back into playing poker in a couple days. There is a $2k tournament in South Florida I will be playing soon. I also am looking forward to jumping in the cash games and seeing how they are now that poker is legalized in Florida. It hasn't really hit me yet. Once I get to see everything in motion I'm sure I will be amazed at the progress Florida has made on the poker end. I am also planning on writing a WSOP Main Event summary where I will talk about some hands I played, and most likely a summer trip report, where I write about my summer in Vegas/WSOP. We'll see. I will definitely do the former if not both. Goodnight. Expect that new blog shortly.

Edit: I guess this blog didn't have many thoughts in it lol. Wait for my next one!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Thanks everyone for the support. It really means a lot. I battled hard today and things didn't end up going my way. I won the first pot of the day and got up to 1.5m and slowly lost it back. I couldn't get anything going. About 4 hours in at 15k/30k/4k ante I was knocked out when I had about 750k in chips. I'm happy with how I played and have no regrets. I felt like I had a good feel for everything as well as the players. I was super comfortable and not nervous at all. It just wasn't my tournament. I busted about 30-40 minutes before the dinner break in 113th place for $57,102.

Overall I had a great World Series of Poker. I had a couple deep runs (including a final table bubble in the double shootout), cashes, and bubbles. I felt like I played really well the whole summer and I look forward to playing more live poker tournaments. I believe my game has elevated to another level and I like challenging myself with that belief. Things can only get better from this point on. I doubt I will have to wait for the next WSOP to have another big sweat. The Main Event is one of the few poker tournaments in the world that can really change your life. I'm disappointed I didn't do better, but I am proud of myself for doing my best. Everything I did had a reason. Every fold, every call, every raise; I knew what I was doing. I stayed level headed the whole time and never got excited or dejected. My mentality has definitely changed this summer and it will only make me a better player and a better person.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. I am heading back to Florida tomorrow. I have been in Vegas for almost two months! It has gone by very fast. I look forward to playing poker in Florida now. I also want to continue to play high-level, live tournament poker. Maybe I will play my first WPT this year. Only time will tell. I'm going to get some rest and relax for a couple days. Right now I feel strange. I'm lightheaded and it feels like my ears need to pop. Definitely a weird feeling lol. I hope I'm alright and a little sleep cures my problem. I'll be fine.

Maybe I will talk about some big hands I played during the Main Event. There were definitely a lot of crazy pots that went down, including one hand from Day 1 which was just absolutely insane. We'll see how I feel, if I want to talk about some hands and give out some of that information. I will probably write a trip summary or something as well when I get some time.

Once again I just want to say I appreciate everyone who showed support and cheered me on. I know there's a lot of you. Thank you. I'm glad you guys could share the experience with me and I hope you enjoyed the ride. Two deep runs in the Main Event in 5 years isn't so bad. Hopefully I get a couple more chances in the near future. Thanks again. Goodnight.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Another day in the bag, along with 1.23m in chips (Yes -- 1.23 MILLION chips. Enough of the K's.) The average chip stack is 1.07m. There are roughly 200 players left. Today was just a steady grind. I started with 767k and chipped up slowly throughout the day. Interestingly enough, I didn't play a pot over 300k today. That tidbit of information is mind blowing to me. We played 3k/6k, 4k/8k, 5k/10k, 6k/12k, and 8k/16k and I didn't get in one pot over 300k. Not to say that I wouldn't have.. it just didn't happen. It was a slow paced day for me and I'm fine with that. I was up to about 1.4m on my peak but blinded down some. There is an hour left at 8k/16k/2k ante and then I think we go to 10k/20k. The pots should be getting pretty big from here on out. I heard we play down to 63 players tomorrow. I believe I am 65th in chips out of the final 205.

I'm not sure what else there is to say. I have three more days to go. That's all. Three days. Three days until the November 9 is set. Hopefully I am fortunate enough to be one of those final 9. I will continue to do my best and see where it takes me. Thank you everyone for the support. I appreciate it a lot. Three more days.

Here's me decked out in some DeepStacks/FTP patches for TV. I hate hats lol. I never wear them and didn't want to have it on backwards at the time... oh well lol.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Another day in the books. I am sitting on 767k in chips. The average is 380k. There are 574 players left and we are in the money. I am guaranteed 21k I think. I haven't looked, I don't care. I started off with a nice stack today, lost a couple decent sized pots, and moved to a new table. The new table had Cole South (CTS) who is an amazing cash game poker player. He was two seats to my left. It also had a couple other good players. I was settled into this table all day.

My stack went down from around 150k to 360k then I lost a massive pot where I folded top two pair on the river. The pot was about 300k and I went from 360k to 220k after it. I asked the floorman who was watching the hand "If I expose my hand is my hand dead?" We were heads up, I bet the river, the player moved all in, and action was on me to fold or call. The floorman answered "No." So I turned over my two pair. I ended up folding and the floorman then came up to me and told me I was receiving a one round penalty for showing my hand. I was completely baffled. Why didn't he tell me that was the consequence of showing my hand when I asked? I tried to ask for other opinions but all the WSOP staff said I had a penalty. Fair enough. I know the rule, but at the time I wasn't really thinking about it and was more focused on the hand and trying to get more information. I brain-farted and forgot that that was the rule lol. It's basically my fault, but I thought since the floorman was there he would tell me the rule. I was wrong. He claimed I flipped my hand over too quickly before he could say anything else... which is not true. Oh well.

So after that hand, I served my penalty (we were about 40-50 out of the money on the bubble) and went back to the table. We eventually made the money and I grinded the 150k shortstack until the 3k/6k level. I then doubled up twice to 650k and chipped up a little more to end the night where I'm at with 767k. There is an hour left at 3k/6k/1k ante and after that we will play 4k/8k/1ka. We will be playing another 8 hours of poker tomorrow and I imagine we will get down to the top 150 or so. We will see.

That's about all there is to say. Today went by pretty fast. I chatted it up with Cole for a while and another player named Tommy. Both are high stakes cash game players; nice guys and good professionals. It's going to be tough since we are now in the money I can't listen to my iPod anymore to keep my sanity. I will probably listen on break when I can. I really hate that rule. Is someone really going to tell me how to play my hand through my iPod? I know, I know. People can cheat... but it would just be so ridiculously hard to unless you were at a final table/featured table where the hole card cameras were. It's a pretty pointless rule. Anyone who isn't paying attention can miss the action. It doesn't matter if they are listening to music or not. Enough of that rant lol. I'm about to get some sleep and hopefully survive another day. Goodnight.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Hopefully my blog titles stay boring for the next couple days. Anyways, I made Day 4 of the WSOP $10k Main Event. There are currently 1200 players left out of 7319 that started. I have 286k and the average stack is about 175k. We make the money when we get down to the last 747 players, which will happen sometime tomorrow. I'm assuming it will take at least half the day maybe longer for us to make the money. I believe we will play another 8 hours tomorrow.

I've just been doing my thing. Playing my best and not worrying about anything else. I'm in a good state of mind. I'm not excited, but I realize the position I'm in as well. I've realized you can't let your emotions roller-coaster when you play tournaments. You will just be bringing yourself up to let yourself down. I'm going to stay level headed until the tournament is over. I'm also going to do the best that I can do and whatever happens after that is out of my hands. I think I've finally come to terms with that (thanks tim0 -- although I'm currently sitting next to him while he is grinding 5/10 online and he is a little annoyed lol.)

I started off today at 151k, got up to 271k early... then lost a 110k flip and hovered between 220-180 for a couple hours. Towards the end of the night I won a couple nice pots and finished with 286k. Hopefully I can find myself in some good/easy spots tomorrow and things go my way.

After we finished playing, I headed home and then got dressed to go to the gym. I lifted weights, played basketball, and ran a little bit. I feel really good and I can't wait to go to sleep. My laundry is finishing up right now and my head will hit the pillow shortly after that. It's already later than I wanted to stay up but I want to keep this updated. I'll be updating my twitter like usual if you want to follow my progress. Wish me luck for tomorrow. Goodnight.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

It's about 3:30am. I'm pretty tired. My body is drained. My back is sore and my legs are stiff. Who knew playing poker could be so tough? Sitting down for so long takes it toll and I have to remember to get up every now and then, stretch, and get my blood pumping. If you're wondering why I'm exhausted it is because I played Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Main Event today. I survived and will play Day 3 on Monday.

I started the day with one of the bigger stacks in the room, 121k. Things didn't go my way early. A couple hours into the day I was down to 55k. I managed to grind back and finish the day strong with 151k. The average stack is probably ~90k. There are still a lot of players left in the field. We merge all of the starting days on Monday and come together for the start of Day 3. I'm glad I survived the first two days, but come Monday there is a week long grind of poker ahead of me. There won't be anymore days off in between playing. I have to be physically and mentally prepared for what is about to take place.

I've gotten deep in the Main Event before. A couple years ago I finished 163rd out of 6400 players. I think I busted halfway through Day 5. I wasn't ready then. I might not be ready now. I feel like I'm ready at this point, but only time will tell. Every year I improve dramatically, so I'm sure down the road I will reflect and say "I wasn't as good back then as I am now." With that said... I like where I'm at right now. I will just leave it at that.

My table had a lot of tough players at it today. Hopefully my table draw for Day 3 will be softer. I'm going to have to hold back on talking about hands that took place. I might play with some of the same players later in the tournament and I don't want to give away too much information. There have definitely been some insane pots so far.

On a side note.. Lebron is going to the HEAT! I'm super happy about this. I have been a Heat fan since I was a kid. I've lived in South Florida my whole life. I used to go to the Heat games all the time with my dad when I was younger, so I'm going to have to repay the favor and get some tickets this year. I tried to get season tickets but it appears they might have sold out. Hopefully I can make it to some of the games. I think South Florida/Miami is just going to be ridiculous now. Poker is legalized, Lebron James plays for the Heat, South Beach, great weather, it is just shaping up real nice down there. I'm happy to be in Vegas but I'm excited to head back to Florida and get the ball rolling there.

Tomorrow I'm going to relax. I will probably play basketball, workout, run some errands, and maybe get a massage or something. It's nice having days off from a tournament but I've become spoiled. It will be a grueling tournament if I survive from Monday to Saturday, but I hope that's a struggle I have a chance to go through. If you want to follow my progress check out my twitter page (twitter.com/TristanCre8ive) Goodnight.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Sorry for the lack of updates. Time just flies when you're playing tournaments all day. I haven't spent much time on the computer either, which has been typical this summer. Since my last blog I have played a couple more tournaments with no cashes. I went deep in a few but nothing exciting happened.

I played Day 1B of the $10k World Series of Poker Main Event yesterday. I finished with 121k in chips. I am 20th in chips for all Day 1B players. When all the Day 1's are finished I imagine I will be in the top 100-150 in chips. It doesn't mean anything at this point, but it is a good start. I had a good starting table. I didn't recognize anyone and most of the players seemed like they were amateur players. We were missing a player in the 6 seat. I was sitting in the 7 seat. The ESPN cameras were circulating around all table for the first two levels. We were then notified that someone special was coming to sit next to me. Along came........ Phil Laak.

Phil sat and we chatted it up through the day. He's a nice guy. Definitely unique to say the least. He's really smart and fun to talk with though. He gets you thinking, that's for sure. I played one enormous pot against Phil where we got it in my 99 vs his 45cc on a 9d45d board for 118k pot at 200/400/50a. He actually predicted the 5c being a bad card for him hours before lol. Crazy.

Another insane pot I played was at the 100/200 level. I don't want to give too many details about the hand, but it was three way action on the flop of JcJsTc and I had KcQd. Me and another player were heads up to the turn, which was the 6h. The river was the Qh and I had to call all in on the river. I tank called and my opponent showed 99 and I won the pot and doubled to 58k. I'll talk more about it after the tournament.

Overall my table was good but there were some tricky opponents and I had to switch gears a couple of times. Luckily a couple things went my way and I am where I'm at. I have a couple days off and don't play again until Saturday. I'm just going to relax and hang out. I will probably play basketball a couple times and hang out with friends. The Main Event is a long grind and I am prepared for another deep run. I'm pretty happy with how I've been playing. I've had a good summer overall, poker included, and I'm going to do my best to get deep in the main. Only time will tell.

ESPN took a lot of footage of our table. Phil Laak was involved in some pretty big pots, including the one with me. A couple of people have asked me why I've never been on TV or "Are you going to be on TV?" Maybe I will make an appearance if they air the footage. That is the last of my concerns but just something interesting to bring up about my day yesterday. I just want to do my best and have a shot to win. If I have anything else to blog about before I play Day 2 I will. Until then... wish me luck.